Apple's wireless carrier partners were surprised to learn of Apple's new iOS 5 messaging feature during Monday's WWDC keynote, according to a new report.

iOS 5, which is due out this fall, features a new messaging service, allowing iPad and iPod touch users to "join the conversation." iMessage allows unlimited text messages via Wi-Fi or 3G from one mobile iOS device to another. Built right into the Messages app, users can send text, photos, videos, locations and contacts.

iMessage will also support delivery receipts and option read receipts, along with secure encryption for text messages. Conversations can also be tracked on multiple devices with the same owner.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball reports that "a well-informed little birdie" told him that "Apples phone carrier partners around the world found out about iMessages when we did: during todays keynote." Gruber's industry sources have been reliable in the past.

The news of Apple's iMessage may have been quite the shock for wireless providers, which bring in substantial revenue from SMS plans. Gruber himself noted that he plans to cancel his SMS plan as soon as iMessage is available. The feature will also compete against a number of iOS apps that offer SMS-like functionality.

iMessage has drawn comparisons to Research in Motion's proprietary BlackBerry Messaging service. Though BBM initially served as a draw to the platform, RIM has struggled as consumers have increasingly chosen Apple's iPhone and Google Android in recent years. AT&T chief Ralph de la Vega said last week that AT&T customers have been "choosing other products rather than traditional BlackBerries."

Apple has at times been at odds with the wireless carriers over new features in the iPhone. Late last year, European carriers threatened to discontinue subsidies for the iPhone after reports emerged that Apple was developing an embedded SIM card that would allow customers to shop for wireless service directly from the Apple store.

A subsequent report suggested that Apple had backed down from its plans because of carrier opposition. The France Telecom CEO said last month that Apple had agreed on a compromise to use a smaller card instead of an e-SIM.

In addition to iMessage, iOS 5 packs 200 new user features and 1,500 new APIs, including an all-new Notification Center, a PC-free design and Newsstand, a new way to purchase and organize newspaper and magazine subscriptions. The free software update will be available for iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, iPad, iPod touch (fourth generation) and iPod touch (third generation) this fall, though some features may not be available on all products.

There’s a billion and one “free texting” apps on iOS already. It’s not like this is that out of the ordinary. The only difference is that people will actually use this one rather than trying to figure out which friend has which free texting app.

No fundamental difference between an SMS-free text message and an email, it’s just presentation (and some specifics at the transport level).

6
posted on 06/07/2011 11:10:51 AM PDT
by kevkrom
(Palin's detractors now resort to "nobody believes she can win because nobody believes she can win")

The PC ain’t going anywhere. When someone needs to do heavy-duty content creation, they’re not going to use a tablet and a cloud, they’re going to (as I’m using right now) use a big- or multi-screen display, tactile-feedback keyboard, pointing device, megabits of bandwidth, gigabytes of memory, terabytes of storage, and physical media.

We’re not looking at a “computerless world”, we’re looking at ever more power being squirted into ever smaller devices.

Come 40 years hence, I’ll expect my iContact augmented-reality interface always-there always-on, AND my _Minority_Report_ 3D full-vision interface which will sit at my work desk. The leading edge of convenience and the leading edge of power will always be divergent.

Only a matter of time until someone figured out how to make money off NOT charging for access to a free capability. Apple will make millions just off of “it’s free on iOS and your friends are already using it” hardware sales.

That’s been the problem: ubiquity. There’s enough iOS users to make transitioning from SMS easy; few others can provide that “everybody is doing it” base.

The cloud is just another rebrand of the thin client which they’ve been predicting was going to kill the PC since the LAST time Jobs was in charge in Apple. And all those predictions forget that the PC emerged FROM thin client, it’s like trying to replace cars with trains, it’s a giant leap backwards that isn’t going to happen.

Steve: You know, the iCloud sounds really swell and all, and not having to plug into the Mac to sync the iDevices is a welcome feature, but I’d really prefer to have a local “home based” cloud with the option of allowing certain content out to the larger cloud while retaining local control.

Now I realize that might prevent me of getting updates done at home by other family members while I’m out, but I’m willing to risk it.

Sword: so far I’ve not heard much in the way of details on such an issue. Any insights?

From Steve Jobs —Pathetically clonish cultish slavish gay shyte. Like I’m going to put everything in a cloud or Icloud or what have you. I do in fact back up a few gigabytes on Sugar Sync cloud and it costs me $00.00. You get 5 GB free from them, more if you pay. Of course I can access my Sugar Sync account on any computer

The PC isn’t going away, just certain things are becoming more doable on portables. With the iPad, email now doesn’t suck. Picture browsing and movie watching are fully in portables now, as is limited Office-type work. One guy actually filmed and edited a movie short entirely on an iPhone. The iPad is already running the smaller games of the consoles. Newer smartphones can do most PopCap style games already, and the iPad 5 will probably run the equivalent of Modern Warfare 2 or Metal Gear Solid 4 just fine*.

Most of what we do we will be able to do fairly well on a tablet within a few years. Add a Bluetooth keyboard and cable out to a larger display (or daisy chain two huge monitors with one Thunderbolt cable), and you can do what most people already do on a desktop. This is especially true with OS X Lion blurring the lines between a tablet and desktop OS, and Windows 8 running both tablet and desktop apps.

But portables will never do pro HD video editing, you need massive parallel processing speed, lots of memory, and lots of very fast storage. Gaming will continue to move on, so that Modern Warfare 2 will look primitive on consoles and PCs by the time the iPad 5 is out. There’s just not enough power, memory and fast storage available on a portable to do some things the best they can be done.

* Patent-prevention prior art statement: cut up the levels into finer sections, download from the cloud as needed to save local storage space, cache recent sections (in case someone turns around, but let it go out of cache after they’re far into the next section) and next likely sections based on direction traveled or for programmed game flow. Give sections a small low-fidelity version to be downloaded rendered when seen from afar in open worlds, the higher-fidelity data is downloaded with a higher priority as you move towards that section. Data for sections viewed from a sniper scope, or susceptible to be viewed during sniper missions, can be given highest priority.

Most people will do it the same way you would. Some of your “stuff” up in the cloud to be accessible in many places on many devices. Then a lot more of your “stuff” kept strictly at home. Say you buy a DVD and rip it onto a hard drive for convenience. Putting DVDs in cloud for some kind of universal access cloud sounds ridiculous. Short video clips are reasonable. You might want to give others access to them

Steve: You know, the iCloud sounds really swell and all, and not having to plug into the Mac to sync the iDevices is a welcome feature, but Id really prefer to have a local home based cloud with the option of allowing certain content out to the larger cloud while retaining local control.

Yea... Well aware of that. What Im not aware of, and why I asked, was whether or not the server would function as a local icloud rather than Apples cloud farm in NC.

I havent had time to drill down through all the reports on the announcement. I just figured Id ask the Sword and see if he knew.

I was just cracking wise, that was clear.

What is also clear is that a system which includes only a central server farm for the entire country (if not indeed the entire world) would be far less robust than one which also had distributed local servers as well.

Seems like that huge central farm would have a bullseye on it by hackers, if not terrorists.

It isn’t ubiquity as much as ubiquity tied with simplicity. There are several (free) IM apps that work across platforms already. Many designed to mimic BBM as well. They all require some type of registration process and so forth. It is more drawn out, and not worth the trouble when you can just use SMS.

I can’t figure out why Google never released a native GTalk app for iPhone. That would have gone a long way toward accomplishing this in the US at least.

Still have a long way to go on ubiquity as well. I’m down to a precious few without a smartphone, but as it happens the most frequently texted is not on a smartphone yet. So that isn’t happening. I would also say whatever does away with SMS has to be cross platform because competition is here to stay.

22
posted on 06/07/2011 5:09:32 PM PDT
by Mr. Blonde
(You ever thought about being weird for a living?)

Thats been the problem: ubiquity. Theres enough iOS users to make transitioning from SMS easy; few others can provide that everybody is doing it base.

Smartphones have, pretty much from the beginning, had access to AIM, Google chat, Yahoo chat, etc. I had an AIM client on my Treo. The main advantage of SMS, as you point out, is ubiquity; the simplest "feature phone," as the kids are calling them these days, can do it.

I don't see iMessage as a direct challenge to SMS. I see it more as a feature-for-feature challenge to Blackberry Messenger, which is cited by a number of Blackberry users as a reason to stick with that platform. With receipts and encryption, iMessage eliminates one reason for individuals, and especially companies, to stick with Blackberry.

I just learned that iMessage requires you to do absolutely nothing. That is nice for those who have to set up phones for less technologically adept friends and family. iMessage will just detect if it is communicating with another iOS device and if so use iMessage rather than SMS. Maybe y’all were aware of this, but I wasn’t. It definitely one ups everyone else in this regard big time even compared to BBM.

24
posted on 06/08/2011 10:20:56 AM PDT
by Mr. Blonde
(You ever thought about being weird for a living?)

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